Stalling Criminal Justice System Decried By: Yassah J Wright

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Court delays in adjudicating cases seem to exert huge psychological toll on both victims and accused and the stress and uncertainty of years-long waiting for justice drives many to drop their claims altogether. A clear example is the case of seven-year-old daughter of Nat Bayjay, Deputy Minister for Technical Services, at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism. Bayjay’s daughter was said to have been reportedly sexually abused in the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2020. Bayjay served as Minister Counsellor for Press and Public Affairs at the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, when the incident took place, according to documents from the Juvenile Court for Montserrado County in the possession of this newspaper.

The court records revealed that the case has indefinitely postponed due to the September 20, 2022 communication from the Sexual Gender Based Violence Crimes Unit of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The communication comes from Cllr. Kathleen P. Makor, SGBV’s Chief Prosecutor. with the case due to fact that she is ill, as a result of the sexual abused perpetrated against her by the defendants and she is currently in the Republic of Nigeria seeking medical treatment.” She begged Judge Thomas Anderson’s indulgences to excuse them from proceedings in said case until the victim completes her treatment and return to Liberia.The letter did not mention any date, as to when the victim will return for the resumption of the case. Although Defense Lawyer, Cllr. Momolu G.  Kandakai of the Gongloe and Associates Law Firm objected to the delay letter, Judge Thomas Anderson ignored the concern. This case was forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2021, by Ambassador Professor Al-Hassan Conteh of the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, realising  that it involves criminality among kids of staffers of the Liberian diplomatic Mission.\ The decision of  Conteh  resulted  from  the conclusion of an administrative investigation, based on  the  victim’s  biological father Bayjay’s claim that she was allegedly abused by two minors, Alieu B. Sackor, 15 and Ambullah Massaquoi, 12,  during the period of September 2020 and April 2021. Sackor and Massaquoi were charged with Corruption of Minor by the Liberia National Police (LNP) in November 2021, after they and their parents were asked to come back to Liberia to stand trial. Unfortunately, since the September 2022″s letter, the statues of the case remain a complete mystery, leaving  the victim  with psychological trauma, while the defendants who pleaded not guilty during their first court appearances still waiting for the closer of the matter.The case grew when the victim allegedly explained to her parents, Nat Bayjay that on April 17,2021, his daughter revealed to his wife that during the period herein. Specific Juvenile had on separate occasions abused her sexually, in the anus and virginal. She revealed that the Defendants repeatedly abused her within a vacant room on the ground floor of the building housing the Liberian Embassy in Abuja,  Nigeria.  That upon getting such revelation from his daughter, he inquired from her as per the reason she did not report the issue.  She explained that she informed her two sisters several times as the perpetrators abused her but she was advised by her sisters not to report it in order to maintain the cordial relationship between the both families.  He said his daughter was taken for medical examination and treatment at three hospitals in Nigeria and the Hope of Women Hospital in Liberia where it was confirmed that his daughter has been raped. But, in counterargument, Cllr. Kandakai asked the court to dismiss the accusations against the defendants. Cllr. Kandakai argued that it is impossible for the alleged seven-year before turning eight in 2021 could be abused from September 2020 up to April 2021, repeatedly both in the anus and virginal without immediate impact and or some sort of discovery by the parents. “Most particularly the mother who provides  care of the allege victim in term of bathing and other daily support, as this called sexual abuse, according to the masterminded, through oral conversation with other family members and neighbours,” Kandakai argued. According to him, it is also  impossible for a seven- year -old to remember being abused between the period September 17, 2020, up and including April of 2021. “The exactitude of timeframe only showed that the alleged victim was program by one of the parents,” Kandakai said, before asking for the dismissal of the case. Cllr.Kandakai also challenged the medical report, claiming to have come from Nigeria, because the documents fail to meet the minimum requirements for a communication from a Foreign jurisdiction to be adduced and use as evidence in pursuit to the October 5, 1961, Apostille /Hague Convention to which Liberia is a signatory. He argued that the medical report originated from the Federal Republic of Nigeria should have had the Counsellor Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, to have issued an Apostille letter to authenticate the said letters, pursuant to the October 5 1961.  “And, that without issuing country Apostille, rendering same unfit for submission in this jurisdiction to be used as evidence to prove an allegations of fact,” Kandakai noted.

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